JON ANDERSON - GET WELL SOON

Yes is one of my favorite bands. I was looking forward to seeing them this summer. Unfortunately, singer Jon Anderson has been having respiratory problems, and has been advised to cancel the tour. I've interviewed Jon, he's always been super cool.  It's amazing when someone you've listened to for decades turns out to be so cool. Anyway, I hope he gets well soon, and sings again. I hope Yes tours again in the future. 

WOLFGANG'S VAULT: SOON TO BE OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Now this is interesting. Wolfgang's Vault is a site that has streamed live recordings from the Fillmore venues from the '60s and '70s and has sort of fought record labels for the right to do this. 

Now, they're saying that they have a deal with Universal Music to legally sell downloads of concerts by Universal artists. That would include groups like The Who, The Allman Brothers Band, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Traffic to name a few. This is really cool news. I look forward to spending too much money at this site. 

METALLICA: GUITAR HERO

Aerosmith aren't the only band getting their own edition of Guitar Hero: now, it turns out that Metallica are getting their own edition. It wouldn't surprise me if they somehow debuted new tracks from their upcoming Rick Rubin-produced album via the game. I'm not a gamer, but I have moderately high hopes for the album. 

MORE ON NEIL YOUNG'S LINC VOLT

Once again, cool stuff about Neil Young at Thrasher's Wheat. They've posted a bunch of links about the Linc Volt documentary. Cool stuff, check it out. 

NO EXPIRATION ON OUTQ

Tomorrow morning at 9:30, No Expiration is going to be on SIRIUS OutQ at 9:30 am ET. I'll be the guest of Larry Flick, discussing some cool new music by Aimee Mann, Al Green, R.E.M., The Raconteurs and also the sad passing of Bo Diddley.  I was on the show two weeks ago, but hopefully it will be a weekly thing. It was a lot of fun, and of course it's fun to talk about music. 

EVEN MORE NEIL YOUNG NEWS!

Here's some not-totally confirmed Neil Young news. Of course, even "confirmed" Neil Young news isn't really confirmed - as all Neil fans know, with him, anything can change at any time and usually does. ("Eat A Peach.")

Toast: Probably out in 2009. If it comes out this year, it'll be late in the year.

Harvest Moon Live: Next year.

The Archives: This fall. After making that address at the JavaOne conference, I doubt they will appreciate him making them wait a decade for the product. And it seems like he wants to get it out now that the technology exists for him to release in a format that he's cool with.

Deja Vu: There will be a soundtrack, with complete versions of the songs heard in the film. This is cool, as there hasn't been a live album documenting a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young tour since they reunited in 1999. I wonder if Graham Nash, the master archivist, put it together, or Neil (or Neil's people) handled it. I think post-1999 CSNY warrants its own box set, but I'll take what I can get.

Linc-Volt: Probably no soundtrack. I don't know why I thought there would be, but I imagined scenes of a car driving across the big sky country, accompanied by music like what Neil did for Dead Man (a great film score, and a cool film starring the guitarist from the band known only as P).

And here's some news that was totally new to me: there's some talk of a solo acoustic album recorded before Neil's solo debut. Wow. I would think that something like that would be part of the Archives, but maybe Neil is making some of that stuff available in seperate packages to those who don't have a Blu-Ray player and don't intend to buy one.

All in all, exciting stuff. But remember: with Neil, anything can change at any time. All part of the fun of following his path, I guess!

HE'S BACK - THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK

Ok, maybe it's wrong to start a post about Alice Cooper's next album, Along Came A Spider, with a headliner quoting one of his worst songs ever. Whenever Alice is about to release a new album, I hope that it will be good - but if often isn't. Like KISS, Alice may have diminished the power of his brand through doing corny stuff and making weak albums.

Which is a shame: like KISS, he's made some incredible albums that have changed the course of rock and roll. Not just metal, but punk, garage rock, "alternative," etc. He absolutely should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's just that he was one of the first sell-outs in the eyes of fans. He was doing Hollywood Squares back in the '70s. Right or wrong, it's hard to take someone as seriously as you used to after that.

But he's a really cool guy, and is extremely intelligent, and he's a huge music fan. So I hope this album is good.